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peding towards Safety • he speed limit for a truck
Page 11
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on a rural single carriageway road is omph, whereas for a car driver it is 6omph. This 20mph disparity leads to frustration, npatience and reckless behaviour from some car drivers which can all too often end -1 tragedy. With this in mind, should the government be looking to raise the speed limits )r trucks on certain roads in order to reduce the accident risks? Jennifer Ball investigates.
Speed limits for trucks are a >my issue. On the one hand, a lower the speed, the easier s to stop 44 tonnes of moving ick. On the other, its widely knowledged that car drivers I attempt sometimes reek s manoeuvres to get past an tic 'dawdling' at 40mph.
In the words of one anonyius truck driver: Not all drihs like to speed but ljust can't at 40mph. One day I will and a r driver will try to get past After 20 minutes of trying will get frustrated and take a k—if he doesn't get back in, I I be able to say I was driving ally, even though in a way I used the accident. station is known to be the use of many accidents."
fferent limits
itio in their right mind would t different speed limits for ides traveling on the same ad? Can you imagine suggest, that nowadays? 'Oh we'll a buses at 30, trucks at 40 d cars at 50.' What would the action be?"
Now the government is lookto get involved in the issue. In response to the report ued by the Select Committee
• Transport, Local Governint and the Regions on Road elle Speed, it says that it will N reissue its guidance to local thorities on implementing aed limits. Among its recom
mendations is that there could be a 40mph speed limit on C and unclassified roads. Other wider C and unclassified roads where a higher speed is appropriate might then be upgraded to B roads. In the government's view if a 40mph limit was introduced on minor roads, the limit for HGVs on A and B roads could then be increased from 40mph.
The current limit on single carriageways has often been seen as the cause of accidents. So should it be increased to prevent car drivers taking risks to overtake slower vehicles?
After all, according to government figures published this summer, on non-urban roads 76% of artics break the 40mph speed limit. This rises to 88% of artics on 50mph dual carriageways; yet HGVs still have the lowest accident rate among all vehicle classes.
Road Haulage Association policy director Karen Dee agrees: "Trucks travelling at 40mph on a road when the rest of the traffic is travelling at 60mph can cause more accidents due to the different speeds of travel. We believe that there needs to be a fundamental review on all speed limits but particularly on single carriageways."
The Freight Transport Association has also given evidence to the transport select committee highlighting its con
cerns about speed lim
its on single carriageways and ensuring a balance between safety and reliability to ensure the competitiveness of business. It believes that influencing driver behaviour is a crucial element of speed management and provides management and driver training services to that end.
But Ben Wheatley, public relations and policy officer at road safety group Brake, says that it would be reluctant to see truck speeds raised as this could lead to more fatal accidents: "Most of these lower limits are on single carriageways through villages, which have blind corners, etc."
Time to stop
"Lower speed limits are put in place to make drivers more aware of hazards and give them time to stop. if a truck is involved in an accident it also reduces the chances of it being fatal.
"There is no need for car drivers to overtake slow moving vehicles in front to travel at 60mph. Speed limits should be seen as limits and not targets. They need to consider the safety of other road users such as truck drivers and give them room to manoeuvre. If they do still choose to overtake, they need to do this in an area where it is safe," he adds. However, one County Durham-based operator argues that with technology improving both in and out of the truck, weather-based variable speed limits could be introduced. Nigel Cook, managing director at Consett haulier Elddis Transport, says: "We need to look at speed limits on different sections of roads. In some areas close to schools speed limits could even be dropped.
"On other roads such as the Al speed could be increased quite safely. This is a notorious road for accidents, particularly head-on collisions caused by car drivers trying to overtake trucks; if the speed limit was increased to 50mph they may be more willing to sit behind us and not take chances."